


You Swallow the Stars, I Hold the Night Hostage

by LouPF



Series: Walking in Starlit Fields (and Memories) [6]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: (for those who didn't know about the term that's a good thing), Established Relationship, M/M, POV Third Person, Xenophilia, elves are weird, so are dwarrow for that matter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 14:21:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20229280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LouPF/pseuds/LouPF
Summary: Gimli marvels at Legolas' glowing skin. Legolas marvels, in turn, at Gimli's dwarven eyes.





	You Swallow the Stars, I Hold the Night Hostage

Legolas glows.

Gimli takes no notice of it during the quest - they are, after all, living and breathing beneath the open sky, and any could be affected by that. Besides, everything is strange and odd about the Elf of the Fellowship. If he shines a little, if moonlight echoes strangely off his skin, if his eyes gleam a little too brightly in the hush of night... Gimli chalks it up to his own vision. Aragorn's hair looks strange at times, also, and there was that one evening where Frodo's wide eyes looked more like sky than anything else...

But, ah, yes. Legolas glows. Gimli sees it first in the Glittering Caves of Helm's Deep. Something is off about the lightning in the caves, he muses to himself, but he makes no mention of it - but then he turns, intending to make an idle comment, and gapes.

He cannot describe it. Yet some part of him - some wise, primal part of him - knows right then and there that the Caves will never be beautiful lest Legolas stands within them.

It is some time later before Gimli gets to see Legolas’ skin and eyes up close. They are in Fangorn, in a deep, lovely clearing framed by ancient trees. The stars drip from the sky and they are reflected in Legolas' eyes where he lies beneath Gimli, bare-skinned upon the grass, hands tangled in Gimli's hair.

"You glow," Gimli mutters, putting his hand flat against Legolas' delicate shoulder - his ebony against Legolas' birch. The glow breaks and folds around Gimli's hand. "Legolas, have you swallowed the stars? Do they live within you?" He removes his hand and presses his lips to the same spot.

Legolas' bright laughter ripples through them both. "Nay, Gimli nin, I have not," he says, voice softer than even his skin. He pulls Gimli down and kisses him - lovingly, longingly, with such warmth it leaves Gimli dizzy. When he pulls back, he tucks some hair behind Gimli's ear, humming quietly. "You have such beautiful eyes. Has the night crept into them? Do you hold it hostage?" It might very well be the first time a non-Dwarf calls Dwarven eyes beautiful. Legolas smiles. "I never knew they could expand like such - like cats - it's quite fascinating."

Gimli looks down into Legolas' own eyes - the intense celestine blue framing tiny pinpricks of pupils, expanded only ever so slightly now, in the dark. "Yours, as well," he murmurs, and there is only honesty in his words. He leans down to kiss him again, and they don't speak much for quite some time.


End file.
